Is a 2005 lotus Elise a good first car for a 17 year old?

An Elise is a track day car owned by people for a bit of track day fun.

They are very uncomfortable to drive expensive to maintain and need a lot of experience to drive.

On bumpy roads they are terrible.

Old Lotus Elise

Terrible choice for a child who is just learning how to drive. A Lotus is a sophisticated, high performance sports car ad you have no idea how to handle it or how to take care of it.

The insurance alone will cost you as much as the monthly car payment.

A sports car is never a good choice as a first car, especially for a ten driver. Really stupid in fact.

You aren't serious, an Elise does not even include a roof unless something was added. It is a nice car to compete with. I instructed a woman in a similar Lotus Exige (which does have a roof) for autocross at a race track and it felt like we were easily taking 1 g in the corners with no drama. She and her ex had joint custody of the car.